CHAPEL HILL -- Presidential candidate John Edwards stood up for workers of a North Carolina company Thursday.

He's supporting the efforts of Smithfield Foods workers to unionize. Edwards believes the issue symbolizes a larger problem nationwide.

Keith Ludlum says employee issues at the world's largest pig slaughterhouse are nothing new.

"I started working at Smithfield in '93," Ludlum said. "They fired me in '94 for trying to organize my fellow workers into a union so we could collectively pursue a better life for our families."

The employees have been engaged in a battle with the company to unionize for nearly 15 years. They say the company is using violence and intimidation to employees. The workers want the right to better pay and working conditions.

"I want a union out there as much as the rest of them do so we could have a nice place to work and live better," added worker Lois Burns.

"What I've been told is the same people that are handling the hogs are also producing the water and they put Gatorade powder in the water to cover the taste and the smell," John Edwards said.

Edwards met with the workers behind closed doors Thursday before holding this news conference.

Edwards has not talked to the company specifically but he did send a letter and he's looking for federal legislation to help the problem. The bill is known as the Employee Free Choice Act.

"[The bill] essentially allows workers to decide whether they want a union or not through democracy by signing their name to a card," Edwards said.

"Any man, woman, child mistreated, injured, abused it's not reducable to just a union issue," said the Rev. Nelson Johnson. "It is an issue of justice."

In January, Smithfield Foods announced it would allow workers to vote on a union, but so far that has not happened.

Smithfield Foods did not respond to our calls for comment on the issue.